Waiting for Mama, Berkeley, CA
Mama went on a phenomenally unusual (for her) week-long meditation retreat last week. Since she gave birth to the first of these kids, she had never taken that much time for just her, and she returned a remade woman.
We all made it through the week intact (a feat made nearly inevitable by my current status as work-at-home, self-employed Baba), but lordy did we miss her, and lordy were we happy for her to return. After a long drive from the Santa Cruz mountains, she texted us to say that she was at the local market picking up provisions. From that point onward, I couldn’t pry the kids off the porch. And when mama finally arrived, I couldn’t pry them off of her.